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How to Encourage Community Change

How can you use social science to encourage communities to change collective behaviours? We cover how to identify a behaviour that needs to change, how to target the key audience, how to encourage change, and the best mode of communication to reach the intended community. The provided check list will help you communicate effectively with local communities.

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Supporting Vulnerable Students

Timely, targeted, and informative messages can motivate young workers to continue pursuing their qualifications. Employers can adopt these social science tips to better support students at work.

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Poster with drawings of an elderly couple using wifi to communicate with another younger couple. Title says: "Self isolate to help stop the spread."

Community Communications

Today was productive. I completed our presentation on how to use behavioural science to improve communications with local communities. This will be presented by our partners at a workshop on Monday. I’m attending to observe discussions.

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Increasing Take-Up of Training Services

Employers can reduce the number of people dropping-out of vocational training by encouraging students to proactively seek help when they start struggling. Simple but effective communication with practical advice, sent at optimum times, is key.

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Scaling Successful Trials

I’m back at work this week. I was officially on holidays from the 16th of December until the beginning of this week, however, I ended up having to work every day of my holidays. That was because our public health trial, which need to be extended.

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Juggling Research

I’m currently managing three large research projects, plus our media. I’ve had two big weeks preparing for our public health trial, planning an ethics application, delivering a workshop, finalising results of a project that’s been scaled across the state, and managing our public communications under less than ideal timing.

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Orange wall with orange megaphone

How to Communicate Effectively for Behavioural Change

Usually, when we create communications in Western societies, we’re used to telling a story. For example, emails usually follow a narrative format: an introduction to the organisation, followed by information about a project, background to the issue, further information about current objectives, and we end with our request. Evidence from behavioural science shows this format, while highly familiar, rarely shifts behaviour. This post provides tips for improving communications.

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Protesters at the Stop Black Deaths in Custody march in Sydney. One man carries the Aboriginal flag

Racial Justice at Work

A lunchtime seminar on Aboriginal queer people at work, revising data from our randomised control trial to improve outcomes for students, public communications, and personal research.

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Research Admin

Research doesn’t just involve collecting and analysising data, or writing reports. It involves endless admin and negotiation. I returned to work on a data request, accessibility, public communications, plus equity and diversity planning.

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Planning Research

When you get a PhD, no one tells you how much of your research career will be spent doing admin, planning, and meetings! Today was a day filled with an abundance of these auxiliary tasks that keep research projects running on time and within allocated resourcing. From ethics, to stakeholder meetings about our research, to public communications, and getting ready for our intern, it was a packed day.

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